More good news on Regeneron's cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies for treatment/prevention of COVID (first link). The ongoing trial with mild to moderately ill COVID outpatients (not serious enough to be in a hospital), which showed good results at an interim analysis, was stopped by the IDMB (independent data monitoring board), as their review showed unequivocally strong efficacy (i.e., driving down viral loads and not allowing progression to severe COVID vs. placebo) for the cocktail, meaning it would be unethical to continue with a placebo arm of the trial.
They also said their cocktail appears to still be able to fend off the new variants, due to the differences in design of the two antibodies, targeting different parts of the virus's spike protein and in particular, in the lab theirs is still effective against the South African variant, while the Lilly antibody combo is not (2nd link). They expect to publish the results in March and expect to have 1.25MM doses (if the lower dose is approved - not clear on that - would be half that if not) by June.
While that's nowhere near enough doses at 50-100K infections per day, currently, if vaccinations and behaviors can continue to drive transmissions down to maybe 10-20K/day, which I think is likely by April, then that would likely be enough cocktail doses for most people who get infected, meaning we'd have great prevention (vaccines) and treatments in place for nearly everyone. I had always thought Regeneron would come through and be effective, but will admit it took longer than expected (EUAs weren't issued until Nov - was expecting Sept) and has been overshadowed by the vaccines (3rd link).
https://endpts.com/regeneron-halts-...nds-clear-efficacy-but-there-are-no-data-yet/
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/reg...uth-africa-variant-lillys-does-not-study-2021
https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/ot-covid-science-pfizer-moderna-vaccines-90-effective-regeneron-antibody-cocktail-looks-very-promising-in-phase-ii-iii-trial-and-more.203426/post-4922821
